Friday, June 12, 2009

toma (and lots of ppl in japan): you need more sleep!!

(some of my fav sleepy/sleeping toma moments!! ^_^ sooooo cute~!)

♥ toma-ism #104:toma-kun...ahhhh! i love him so much!(queen_desu's comment on the toma fan map)

hi hi~kate here.minna genki?

UWAA!! 233 hits yesterday!! a new record for TOMA LOVE!! (except if clustrmaps made a mistake.) i'm not sure why, is it cuz a lot of ppl just started summer vacation?? whatever the reason, i'm really happy!! URESHIII!!! ^o^/ REALLY~ THANKS FOR COMING, EVERYONE~ ♥

umm...today is only a toma/japan-related post about japanese ppl and SLEEP (or lack there of!), i hope u don't mind!! i've wanted to talk about this since last month, but it never seemed like the right time to post. so i thought i should finally post it. i love learning more about life in japan. i hope you do too. =)

[ryosuke and his friends sleeping in VOICE. ~_~ notice that toma's the only one who took off his lab coat and is using it as a kinda blanket. heehee.]

in case u were wondering how much sleep our dear toma-kun gets... i think about mid-way through filming for VOICE, toma jokingly complained that he's only getting 8 hrs of sleep a night. =P i guess it depends on the filming schedule from week to week...for sure when a drama nears the end, filming often goes on till really late at night/early morning! in an interview from Myojo, may 2008, toma says his average sleeping time is 4~5 hrs. this must be while he's working. (on his days off, i read somewhere that he often eats or sleep. :P) he says: "this much is enough. i suppose my body has gotten used to it. my fatigue will be gone even if i sleep in the car, and i can work quite hard with just 2 hrs of sleep. i get good sleep i guess. the type who can take power naps."(translation credit: Tomalicious)

and i remember him saying he can sleep anywhere, anytime. haha. so hopefully that means maybe he gets around 6 hrs usually, if it's 5hrs plus a couple naps here and there during the day. ma, for actors, 4-5 hrs a night is pretty normal, right? and it's not like he's in dramas all the time, so that's alright. (and i would think the work schedule for stage plays is not as bad as the drama filming schedules.)

so, i got the idea to write about how japanese ppl don't get enough sleep when i read this news article that says that Japanese and Korean people sleep the least in 18 countries surveyed. the link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090504/lf_nm_life/us_france_sleep) the link has expired, so you'll have to trust me on this. basically, French people sleep and eat the most. 2nd place in ppl who sleep the most is ppl in the USA and then 3rd is ppl in Spain. and they said that it's worse for japanese people cuz many of them work long hours and have long commutes.

this got me curious, so i looked up some stuff about japanese ppl and sleep. and i remembered reading about how they allowed ppl to take naps at work!! it's called "inemuri", and they talked about it in this article that talked about it's very important for your health to get enough sleep:

"Napping at work isn't acceptable in the UK, but in Japan dozing anywhere from Parliament to business meetings is allowed. It's called inemuri, which literally means "to be asleep while present".

The custom is partly a result of how commitment to a job is judged in Japan, says Dr Brigitte Steger. Inemuri is viewed as exhaustion from working hard and sacrificing sleep at night. Many people fake it to look committed to their job.

It's a concept that seems bizarre in the UK but the Japanese are the ones who've got it right, says Dr Stanley.

"The Japanese are right in their assessment that you work better after a nap than before it. There's a degree of machismo about it, you're saying look how hard I've worked. But that's better than the macho rituals we have over here, like how late you can send a work email to prove how long you've been working."

Strict rules apply to inemuri. These include who is allowed to do it - only those high up or low down in a company - and how you do it - remain upright to show you are still socially engaged in some way.

"The rules are written nowhere but everyone knows them, they learn them culturally," says Dr Steger.

(credit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7114661.stm)

(pic credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_apol/262369360/)

and here's a comment one person wrote there:"Over here in Japan I was shocked by how many people just sleep anywhere. Starbucks and McDonalds at lunchtimes seem to be favourites, but pretty much anywhere - standing up next to a vending machine was the funniest I've seen. But now I've been here a while, I've developed the habit myself - although I do have to set my mobile phone alarm to wake up at the right time so I don't miss my train stop (the Japanese have this built in it seems).Allan Connell, Kitakyushu, Japan"

and part of the reason they work such long hours:

"Japanese workers are renowned for working excessive hours, partly due to the cultural tradition of not leaving work before colleagues, regardless of the actual amount of work.

Seeing shattered workers asleep on crowded commuter trains is a common sight, but as Mr Uchiyama added, you can see a similar picture around the world."

and here are some comments in response to the above article about sleep deprivation costing japan's economy a lot of money:

HirusanHirusanon 10/12/2007 Some of these people work from 6am to 12am, sleep for 4 hours then do it again. 7 days a week. 365 days a year. How do I know? I live in Japan.

yukevsteryukevsteron 10/12/2007 In the BBC version of this story it mentions this is a 'global' issue not only in Japan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5063670.stm

I've lived in Japan for six years and got used to strangers sleeping on my shoulder on the train. Some people can actually sleep standing, though they tend to buckle at the knees every 10 seconds or so - a sad sight.

Here it is said; the real work doesn't really start until after 5pm. The whole society is geared towards work and very little play. I'm just glad I'm a foreigner and don't have to 'fit in'.

PtyxPtyxon 10/12/2007I live in Japan and work in a japanese company. In general japanese are not productive. They put up late hours because here everybody does. It's not that they have that much more work but rather that they delay the work they have to get out around 9pm minimum.It gave their boss the impression they're dedicated. That's the important part in a japanese group, whether it's a company, a sports team or a band you have to show dedication before being competent. It's better to suck and work late hours rather to be efficient and get out early. It's all about about group cohesion.Self-sacrifice for the group being the highest virtue.One guy at my office studied at an english college, he finishes what he has to do around 6pm then surf the web until 9pm. I always told him to get out when he's done but he's just paralyzed by the very idea of leaving before his boss does.Being a foreigner they don't expect me to follow the same "rules" so i leave the office whenever i'm done. I think they apreciate it, it probably makes them feel more japanese.

good lord!! how do they do it?! i'm sure not everyone has such tough working hours and is sleep-deprived, but really...there's a lot of japanese ppl that need more sleep!! it's a good thing they can take naps at work, then!! they really really need it.and that last comment...wow!! i would not do well there, too much conformity required...

i wish a lot of ppl in japan could just slow down and enjoy life more (and sleep more!!) instead of driving themselves crazy, working non-stop all the time. and everyone's always telling you to gambatte, gambatte. do your best, work hard! you probably never hear ppl saying things like "take it easy" or "relax" to each other like here in the usa. this is one of the reasons why i would love to visit japan, but i'd have to THINK TWICE (thinking of u, toru! haha.) about living and working there.

(left: takemoto sleeping cuteness!!!!♥)well, toma and many other japanese people are too busy working to be sleeping properly, but what about you? sleep is really important to your health, and what with an INFLUENZA PANDEMIC going on, u want to be as healthy as possible, just in case... it's one thing if you have no choice, cuz of work or whatever, but if you CAN get more sleep but you don't, then-- why would u make yourself suffer like that?

in general, u should get at least 7 hrs of sleep. not getting enough sleep can make it hard for you to concentrate at school/work, make u eat more, and it's bad for your heart, etc. but sleep at NIGHT is important. staying up late at night and then waking up really late the next day is no good. staying up late is bad for your liver and if u oversleep the next day, you won't be able to eat breakfast, which is the most important meal of the day!!

sorry for the nagging, i just know a lot of ppl who often sleep late and wake up late, and i hope you're not one of them! =) and if u are, i hope you'll try to sleep early and wake up early more. "You'll thank me later." (adrian monk says this a lot. ^_~)

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end of 1 of toma's dances. =P

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a place for toma info, news, pics, links, my thoughts/comments about him/his dramas, etc. I hope this blog will help toma fans stay updated with what he's up to and find out more about this TRULY TALENTED & INCREDIBLY CHARMING & CUTE artist who is IKUTA TOMA (生田 斗真). -kate`* (10.8.07)(~~~u can go thru the BLOG ARCHIVE below 2 find lots of TOMA info/links/pics/media,etc.!!~~~ i posted a lot of general info about him around october-november 2007!)

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